Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Viral Nation Book Review

Viral Nation

Shaunta Grimes

PENGUIN GROUP Berkley, NAL / Signet Romance, DAW

5/5 Stars

 

         What do the Presidents of the United States, Time Travel, a post-apocalyptic US, and autism have in common?  The answer is in Viral Nation and it might surprise you.  This is probably the most surprising book I’ve read this year. The story tells of Clover a sixteen year old highly functioning autistic girl and her family.  In a world so removed from anything that we have today that it seems like something out of 1984 or the television series Revolution.  But just like those stories this one has many familiar themes as well.  Everything from the main character, to the direction the story was heading was very surprising.  The story had a few interesting twists but just getting to know the characters in the book made it worth reading.  If you are a fan of the Hunger Games, the Walking Dead,  or even video games like the Last of Us. You will LOVE this book.  It may well be the fastest 300+ pages you’ve read this year.  It appears that Viral Nation is the beginning of a series.  I can’t to see what other surprises Shaunta Grimes has in store of us.

Seers: The New World Book Review

The Seers

New World Order
M. D. Kaczkowski

Kaczkowski, Inc.

Bookmasters, Inc

2/5 Stars

 

       This book was quite interesting in it’s layout.  There were links to a handy glossary type book, there were even videos and art.  Not only in the book but hosted elsewhere.  Very interesting, very innovative.  It’s just too bad the story wasn’t better.  The entire book read like something out of the Left Behind Series.  I wouldn’t even really term this as Fantasy more Horror perhaps.  The book had one paragraph chapters in it’s ebook format.  Which is not only odd, I believe it to be in error.  The book ended far too abruptly, and while the book was a modest length and relatively interesting.  I felt that it moved much too quickly getting to the end.  So much so in fact, that the reader would probably not even realize that they are getting to the end, until it just finishes.  The concept of the story, a group of people who can see a hidden world of angels and demons fighting each other wasn’t a new.  And I while, I wasn’t a big fan of the book as a whole.  It handled a few things well, and in general had descent dialog.  But, I really cannot in good conscience suggest this book to anyone.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Doctor Who Series 1: Winter’s Dawn, Season’s End Graphic Novel Review

Doctor Who Series 1: Winter’s Dawn, Season’s End
Tony Lee, Matthew Dow Smith, Al Davison, Blair Shedd, and Kelly Yates

Diamond Book Distributors

Pub Date: Aug 27 2013

                                   3/5 Stars

        The Doctor Who Series 1 Winter’s Dawn, Season’s End graphic novel has some excellent stories in it.  I wasn’t very fond of the art, ANY of the art.  But the stories are pretty fantastic.  Classic Doctor Who stuff, but with a VERY light hearted twist.  Perhaps this is the reason that most of the art is so throw away and carbon cut out.  Some of the faces are all right some of the time.  But much of the art looks far too run of the mill to be worth anything.  There are two major stories in the book; one mainly about Victorian England a very big surprise that is waiting for the Doctor, Rory, and Amy.  The other is about a “Boys Night Out” that Amy insists that Rory and the Doctor need.  Both stories are a bit over long and while they both are entertaining, some more editing might have been a good idea.  However, as I’ve said both stories are great.  I would suggest that the perfect reader of this work would be someone who is a huge Doctor Who fan.  Mostly of the last couple seasons of the television series.  Some of the things that happen and some of the asides would be completely incomprehensible to someone who is not all ready intimately familiar with the source material.  If you are a HUGE Doctor Who fan, I would definitely pick this up.  After all, they are both original stories and as the generation of Doctor that is in this is going to be going away soon; you’ll want all the material you can get your hands on.  However, the casual fan of Science Fiction, time travel stories, etc..  Need not apply.  There is FAR too much back story here to make it worth your while.

The First Post!

            So let’s get this started off, you don’t know me.  I don’t know you.  At least most of you anyway…   On this blog, I will be writing about Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.  Mostly reviews, some news, and (Horror on Horror) maybe samples from my own work.  If your wondering who I am, or if you know and are wondering where I’ve been all this time.  Check out my Twitter: @timothypecoraro or my Goodreads profile: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7842027-timothy-pecoraro to get some idea.  Don’t worry if you can’t pronounce my last name, no one can.  Which may mean I will be writing under a pseudonym when I do begin writing my own stuff.  But THAT ladies and gentleman, will be coming later!  For right now, check out my latest review of Between Two Thorns over on Goodreads.  It was an audiobook.  But that counts in my book as reading as well.  So if it doesn’t to you, just pretend I read it.

       Hopefully you will be getting daily updates from me, on the latest books I’m reading and probably some news from the world of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror as well.  But I HAVE done this before, so I won’t PROMISE you a post every day.  Just a post every dayish.  Take that to mean whatever you’d like…

        As this is my first post, I won’t bore you folks too much.  Just know that I’m back(or I’m Here if you’ve never heard of me before) and I’m not going any where, any time soon.